Synthetic Semiotics: on modelling and simulating the \ud emergence of sign processes

Based on formal-theoretical principles about the \ud sign processes involved, we have built synthetic experiments \ud to investigate the emergence of communication based on \ud symbols and indexes in a distributed system of sign users, \ud following theoretical constraints from C.S.Peirce theory of \ud signs, following a Synthetic Semiotics approach. In this paper, we summarize these computational experiments and results regarding associative learning processes of symbolic sign modality and cognitive conditions in an evolutionary process for the emergence of either symbol-based or index-based communication

Every man has his price: Kant's argument for universal radical evil

ABSTRACT Kant famously claims that we have all freely chosen evil. This paper offers a novel account of the much-debated justification for this claim. I reconstruct Kant’s argument from his affirmation that we all have a price – we can all succumb to temptation. I argue that this follows a priori from a theoretical principle of the Critique of Pure Reason, namely that all empirical powers have a finite, changeable degree, an intensive magnitude. Because of this, our reason can always be overpowered by sensible inclinations. Kant moreover holds that this necessary feature of our moral psychology should not have been the case: We ought to instead be like the divine human being, for whom the moral law yields a greater incentive than any possible temptation. On Kant’s view, we are thus responsible for having a price, and the synthetic a priori fact that we do proves that we each made an initial choice of evil

Rational Epistemics of Divine Reality Leading to Monism

Rational epistemics is the line of reasoning inclined to reason separated from reliance on experience that ultimately leads to monism or non-dualism

Artificial Societies of Intelligent Agents

In this thesis we present our work, where we developed artificial societies of intelligent agents, in order to understand and simulate adaptive behaviour and social processes. We obtain this in three parallel ways: First, we present a behaviours production system capable of reproducing a high number of properties of adaptive behaviour and of exhibiting emergent lower cognition. Second, we introduce a simple model for social action, obtaining emergent complex social processes from simple interactions of imitation and induction of behaviours in agents. And third, we present our approximation to a behaviours virtual laboratory, integrating our behaviours production system and our social action model in animats. In our behaviours virtual laboratory, the user can perform a wide variety of experiments, allowing him or her to test the properties of our behaviours production system and our social action model, and also to understand adaptive and social behaviour. It can be accessed and downloaded through the Internet. Before presenting our proposals, we make an introduction to artificial intelligence and behaviour-based systems, and also we give notions of complex systems and artificial societies. In the last chapter of the thesis, we present experiments carried out in our behaviours virtual laboratory showing the main properties of our behaviours production system, of our social action model, and of our behaviours virtual laboratory itself. Finally, we discuss about the understanding of adaptive behaviour as a path for understanding cognition and its evolution

Lithbea, a new domain outside the tree of life

At this time when the development of synthetic biology and artificial intelligence are changing the world around us, philosophers and scientists, first of all, must converge to analyze the present and predict the ethical-social consequences and biological dangers associated with new “living entities” that are not the result of the natural evolutionary process. As synthetic/artificial life forms (xenobots, robots, transgenic organisms, etc.) become more and more abundant and sophisticated, it seems first of all necessary to bring some order to all this new biodiversity, establishing what is alive and what is not, and analyzing the consequences of this incessant creative activity. Here I intend to organize all these human-made entities and clarify their status as living beings or artificial elements, leaving the door open to an uncertain future in which we will be able to see how “the artificial” and “the natural” could merge to originate something different from everything known. Accordingly, I propose the creation of a new domain, Lithbea, which includes all synthetic and artificial entities within a new kingdom called Humade (derived from human-made). I have also included viruses in a new realm, the Viral kingdom, because they were excluded from the classical three-domain tree of life despite playing a fundamental role in the evolution of biodiversity on Earth. Finally, I make a brief comment on the unpredictability of the unknown, the implications of this new landscape of biodiversity, and the uncertain future of all these advancesOpen Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer NatureS

Old tricks, new dogs : ethology and interactive creatures

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-140).by Bruce Mitchell Blumberg.Ph.D

Interview with Samantha Frost, ‘Attentive Body’: Epigenetic Processes and the Self-formative Subjectivity

The interview is a follow up from Samantha Frost’s paper, ‘The Attentive Body: How the Indexicality of Epigenetic Processes Enriches Our Understanding of Embodied Subjectivity’ in Body & Society 26(4): 3-34. Tomoko Tamari invites Frost to explore her interest in ‘biocultural creatures,’ which led a focus on ‘bodies’ responsive self-transformation’ in epigenetic processes, and unfolds Peirce’s account of the index for understanding meaning-making in biological processes. Tamari also introduces Katherine Hayles’s notion of ‘cognitive nonconscious’ to raise the question of the possible theoretical and mechanical similarities/discrepancies between epigenetic processes in organisms and the meaning-making process in computational systems. Drawing on Jacob von Uexkull’s notion of ‘umwelt’ and introducing Yoshimi Kawade’s remarks on a living being’s subjective orientation in environments, a further question about ‘intention’ and ‘subjectivity’ enables Frost to unpack her notion of ‘the attentive self’ and discuss its relation to ‘intentionality’ and ‘referentiality’ in epigenetic processes. Finally, Samantha Frost remarks on current projects that seek to explore the connection between ‘attention-as-responsive-self-transformation and ‘mode-of-living-as-form-of-live’. The biosemiotics view of the living body presented in your paper leads us to go beyond the mechanical view of organism functionality and formation process of subjectivity. This challenge asks us to combine biology and semiotics in order to explore the complex mechanism of meaning-making in organisms and to capture ‘the attentive body’ and ‘embodied subjectivity.’ You argue that the concept of the attentive body helps us make a bridge between the body as matter and mind/subjectivity which natural science usually excludes from its domain

The Revelation of God, East and West: Contrasting Special Revelation in Western Modernity with the Ancient Christian East

The questions of whether God reveals himself; if so, how we can know a purported revelation is authentic; and how such revelations relate to the insights of reason are discussed by John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, G. W. Leibniz, and Immanuel Kant, to name a few. Yet, what these philosophers say with such consistency about revelation stands in stark contrast with the claims of the Christian East, which are equally consistent from the second century through the fourteenth century. In this essay, I will compare the modern discussion of special revelation from Thomas Hobbes through Johann Fichte with the Eastern Christian discussion from Irenaeus through Gregory Palamas. As we will see, there are noteworthy differences between the two trajectories, differences I will suggest merit careful consideration from philosophers of religion

Observation-based expectation generation and response for behavior-based artificial creatures

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-69).This thesis seeks to address the incorporation of a low-level cognitive ability into reactive, behavior-based artificial intelligence architectures. Specifically, it addresses the need to generate short-term, observation-based expectations about the world and react appropriately to the violation of those expectations. In it I discuss the motivation for incorporating expectations into a reactive behavior-based architecture, outline the qualitative properties of expectations and the conditions under which they may be violated, propose a model for generating expectations and responding to their violation, detail one implementation of such a model, and finally propose this work as a starting point from which future work on higher-order cognition and behavior might begin.by Christopher John Kline.S.M